Japan Press Weekly

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2021 April 21 - 27 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Tokyo court: separate-surname couple marrying abroad legally recognized as married couple in Japan

The Tokyo District Court on April 21 recognized that a Japanese couple marrying abroad using both family names is legally a married couple in Japan. However, if married in Japan, common surnames are obligatory.

The couple who chose to keep their respective family names when they married in the United States chose to fight this in court in Japan, seeking an officially-certified status as a married couple.

After the ruling, the plaintiffs, Soda Kazuhiro and Kashiwagi Kiyoko, held an online press conference and said, "We are happy that our marriage has become a legally-recognized marriage and not an unregistered marriage. We have won our case."

Their marriage was officially registered in the state of New York in 1997. However, their marriage registration was rejected by Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward in 2018.

The court ruled, "The couple's marriage has been approved," under Paragraph 2 of Article 24 of the Act on General Rules, turning down the government claim that the marriage does not stand in Japan because of different family names.

Past related article:
> Couple with different last names sues government for damage caused by imposition of same surname [June 19, 2018]